Oh look, there's a space...oh, it's gone.

It's a situation all drivers are familiar with - especially at this time of year - you enter a car park and it's heaving, with cars circling round looking for spaces.  It takes you maybe 10 minutes or more to find a space.  This car park charges you for parking by the hour.  Question - when should you start being charged?  When you entered the car park, or when you eventually found a parking space?  The answer seems so obvious, and until recently there was no problem - you parked and then went to the machine and got a ticket, and that was the point at which you started paying,  So what's changed?  These Automated Number Plate Recognition cameras that's what.  They are invariably positioned at the entrance and exit of the car park and record your time of arrival and departure.  And that very often is considered to be your length of stay and for which you will be charged.  Rip-off?  You bet!  One brave motorist has recently challenged a penalty notice he received for overstaying his hour's parking saying that his stay had been calculated from time of arrival to time of departure, rather than from time of parking to time of return, and won his case.  Would like to think this will set a precedent, but am not holding my breath!